Book formats: The long standing debate

In the new era of technology, reading has never been more accessible. Gone are the days that you needed to hold the book in your hand to be able to read it, now you can access it all from the tap of your phone with eBooks and through your headphones with audiobooks.

For most readers the choice available is a an amazing time – more ways to read your favourite novels! But for a lot of people, the newer ways of reading have caused some controversy, especially when audiobooks have been thrown into the mix.

Before 2023, I had never once considered reading a book via an audiobook. Not because I did not think it counted as reading, but purely because I did not think that I had the attention span to be able to focus on the book I was listening to.

When Prime Day came along at the beginning of the summer and there was the opportunity of getting Audible for free for 3 months I decided to take the opportunity to give it a go. When I opened the app there was such a large choice of books to choose from, and I was completely clueless of which one to go for first.

Because of my fear of not being able to focus on the book I was listening to I decided that I would choose my first book to be Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Now, if you are new to my blog you may not know that I am obsessed with the Percy Jackson series (there will be a review of the new Disney Plus series coming out soon!), it is definitely my nostalgic guilty pleasure. I used to re read it every year, so it is safe to say that I know it by heart, which is why I felt like it was a safe choice to listen to on audiobook.

I will not lie, it took some time getting used to. I tried sitting and just listening and felt like it was very difficult to focus on the story as my mind just kept wandering. I then decided to do something whilst listening, so doing household chores for instance and felt like the experience was getting a lot better. It then became my accompaniment for my commute to work and that is now when I tend to listen to audio books.

Thinking about it, listening to someone read to you is not an uncommon situation. As a child I was first brought into the world of reading thanks to family members reading books to me as a bedtime story. When I was staying with my grandparents it used to be my favourite thing, listening to my grandmother or grandfather reading the stories of the Famous Five or the next adventure up the Faraway Tree.

Although these memories and happenings are fond, it still begs the question:

Do audiobooks actually count as reading?

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer as everyone has different opinions. Personally speaking ever since I listened to my first audiobook I cannot get enough of them because it gives me the chance to read more. It is very difficult to read whilst walking to work, so having the book read to you in your ear whilst commuting to work is a game changer.

As I mentioned before, thanks to the improvements and developments in technology reading has become more accessible to everyone. This means that now anyone can delve into the horrors of Stephen King’s worlds, or the fantastical elements of Brandon Sanderson’s universe. It means that anyone can experience the joy of escaping into the story.

Positives and negatives of different reading formats

Now the legitimacy of audiobooks has been established, I thought that it would be fun to explore the positives and negatives of the three different reading formats.

Physical Books

Positive	Negative
More Information absorbed	Safe Storage
Eye protection	Bad for the environment
Better sleep

To me, there is nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a warm cuppa in hand flicking through the pages of your latest read whilst the rain batters against the window. Bonus points if you have a little pet cuddling into you as you read!

Physical books are the traditional way of reading that many people still feel very much attached to. Although some people say that books are a dying hobby, the pandemic seemed to give reading a surge in popularity, especially with the growth of BookTok and BookTube. Because of this sharp rise in popularity, there have been sharp increases in book purchases worldwide, albeit it is a mixture of eBooks, physical books, and audiobooks, it is still a positive thought.

EBooks

Positive	Negative
Portability	Bad for your eyes
Cost	Requires electricity
Wide availability

EBooks, also known as digital books, were first introduced in the 1970s, and digital publishing became more mainstream in the 1990s but mainly in the academic context. It was not until the early 2000s when eBooks were selling on a global scale, publishing houses presenting the option of having both the physical copy of a book as well as the digital copy.

Amazon was created originally as an online book website to take advantage of the newness of the internet. It therefore made sense that Amazon would also take advantage of the newfound popularity of eBooks and develop their own eReader. 2007 was the launch year of the original Kindle, and it was a game changer for the reading industry.

When eBooks originally came along, a lot of people believed that it would be the end of physical books, just like Videos were taken over by DVDs, and DVDs are slowly being taken over by streaming networks. I agree, the eBook industry has grown in popularity but I feel like it has grown in tangent with physical books. I know a lot of people who read both physical and digital books – physical because the touch of books cannot be replaces, but eReaders because they are a lot lighter than some books nowadays.

Audiobooks

Positive	Negative
Accessible	Less engagement
Portability	Missing important details
Hands-free

Audiobooks are recordings of people narrating and performing books to make it more accessible for everyone, that was the purpose of its creation in the beginning.

However that purpose has now evolved as audiobooks have become more popular. One of the reasons why is because people have busy lives and audiobooks facilitate reading when there is no time to. Just like I have done, people often take the opportunity to listen to audiobooks when commuting to work or doing household chores.

Just like with the Kindle, Amazon also took the opportunity and created Audible: an application where you can listen to a wide range of books narrated by the authors or celebrities. I personally use audible because of the chance I got it to use it for free for three months last year, and so far it has been quite a positive experience.

And that brings this post to an end. If I am honest it feels a bit disjointed, but I enjoyed writing about it! What is your preferred format for reading? Let me know in the comments!